Trump’s approval rating lowest during first days as President

Washington: Newly-inaugurated US President Donald Trump entered the White House with the lowest approval rating of any American President, a new poll revealed.

According to the Gallup poll issued on Monday, 45 per cent of Americans approved of how the real estate mogul is handling his new job – the same as the per cent of Americans who disapprove, The Hill magazine reported.

The figure is far from that of his predecessor Barack Obama, who in his early days in the Oval Office in 2009 had a 68 per cent approval rating and a disapproval rating of only 12 per cent.

The president with the highest approval rating during his first days in the office was John F. Kennedy, in 1961, with 72 per cent, Efe news reported.

George W. Bush was approved by 57 per cent of Americans in his first days as president in 2001, while Bill Clinton’s approval rating was 58 per cent in 1993.

According to the poll, the worst approval ratings after Trump’s are those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush in 1981 and 1989 respectively, both with 51 per cent.

Richard Nixon, with a 59 per cent approval rating in 1969; Jimmy Carter with 66 per cent in 1977; and Dwight D. Eisenhower, with 68 per cent, are among those with the highest approval ratings.

The poll did not include approval ratings of former President Lyndon B. Johnson as he took the White House in 1963 after the assassination of President Kennedy and Gerald Ford, who took over after Nixon resigned in 1974.

Gallup conducted the telephone survey of 1,525 people between January 20 and 22.